Friday, December 28, 2007

House amends interim constitution; Nepal is now a federal democratic republic

http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2007/dec/dec28/news15.php

With the passage of the constitution amendment bill by the legislature parliament, Nepal on Friday turned into a federal democratic republic, to be implemented by the first meeting of constituent assembly.

Two thirds majority of the parliament passed the constitution amendment bill, adopting federal democratic republic and setting mid-April timeline for constituent assembly election. It also fixed the number of CA members to 601, sixty percent of which will be elected under proportional voting system and the forty percent members will be elected directly.

A simple majority of the CA will implement the federal democratic republican order.

Speaker Subas Nemwang said that out of 273 MPs, who participated in the voting, 270 voted in favour of the constitutional amendment while three voted against it.

The amended constitution states that the Prime Minister will bear all the responsibilities of the head of the state until the constituent assembly election.

Based on the 23-point agreement signed by the seven parties, the government had presented the bill for parliamentary debate on Monday.

MP Lilamani Pokharel and Padma Lal Bishwokarma withdrew their amendment proposals on the bill while nine other amendment proposals were voted out. nepalnews.com mk Dec 28 07

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